Harry Reid: No Senate Benghazi panel

The Senate will not form a select committee to investigate the White House’s handling of an attack on a Libyan consulate in 2012, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday.

“There won’t be one. There’s no conspiracy here, it was a tragedy,” Reid said, citing previous investigations that his chamber has already undertaken. “There’s been numerous hearings on this already. The State Department did an extensive review.”

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In the wake of email revelations that Republicans believe proves the administration lied about its role in drafting talking points about the attack in Libya, the House is set this week to pass legislation creating a special panel to investigate the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Speaker John Boehner named Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to lead the panel.

Republican senators have called for the Senate to mirror this action and join the House in its probe. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and John McCain of Arizona recently said in a joint statement that “we owe it to the families that lost their loved ones in the Benghazi attack to finally get to the truth.”

But there will be no such action on the other side of the Capitol.

“Now the latest smoking gun is a memo preparing people to go on the Sunday shows. Don’t you think everybody gets some preparation before they go on the Sunday shows?” Reid said when asked by a reporter about Benghazi. “So the answer is no, we’re not going to do any select special committee over here.”